Automating Blender workflow with opening OBJs and rendering them with options
You will get the API calls for free by pulling down the Info Header as shown here:



Just perform the scene setup manually, select all lines A and copy'n paste the commands into a python file. You  might want to add the snippet from the comment by iKlsR.

bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_center()
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(radius=1, view_align=False, enter_editmode=False, location=(0, 0, 0), layers=(True, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False))
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(6.39051, 6.39051, 6.39051), constraint_axis=(False, False, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)
bpy.ops.object.lamp_add(type='HEMI', view_align=False, location=(0, 0, 0), layers=(True, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False))
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, 0, 6.98471), constraint_axis=(False, False, True), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, -6.91949, 0), constraint_axis=(False, True, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1, release_confirm=True)
bpy.ops.transform.rotate(value=-0.645382, axis=(-0.818828, 0.361665, -0.445779), constraint_axis=(False, False, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)
bpy.context.space_data.context = 'RENDER'